Money Theme
We enjoyed some fun centers learning more about money. We tossed coins and would compare heads to tails to see which one was the most.
Candy Store: The kids would pick a card with a certain amount of pennies on it. They then got to buy that many "gum balls"
Coin Stacking: The kids would roll a die and then stack that many quarters, nickels or dimes on top of each other. They kept going until their tower finally tipped over.
We counted by 1's, 5's, 10's and 25's to get to 100 using pennies, dimes, nickels and quarters. I showed them each pile equaled the same as $1. I asked them which one they would like to have and they all agreed 100 pennies was by far the best. ;)
We also made a money flip book
For good behavior during the day they would earn pennies. At the end of the day they got to buy some penny candy with their money they had earned. They loved buying something that they had worked so hard for.
We also got the privilege to go to a bank that one of my parents works at. The kids loved listening to their presentation and going for a tour to their vault.
Cloud Theme
We loved reading the book Little Cloud by Eric Carle. In this book, Little Cloud changes into different shapes. We made our own little cloud out of cotton balls.
We also learned about the different types of clouds and enjoyed going outside to see what kind of shapes we could see. We let our butterflies and ladybugs going during this time too. The kids loved holding the butterflies.
We came back in and made some white clouds all over our tables. We practiced our letters and had fun drawing some pictures.
Shape Day
We really loved reading the book called, The Book of Many Shapes. We made our own page for our class. It went like this, "A triangle is just a triangle until you add some sauce, cheese and some pepperoni. Then it is a pizza!"
We brainstormed before doing this activity and made a list of all the things that we see that are certain shapes.
We had different shaped snacks for snack time. Ritz-circle, Graham Cracker-rectangle, cheese slices- squares, Bugles-triangles
For small groups they had to look at a picture of a shape and then feel in my bag for the shape with the right amount of sides.
We also sang a fun Shape Hunt Chant and the kids had to go find something in the room with that shape.
Shark Day
We learned about our special sound that "sh" makes. We sang some fun shark songs and read some great books. One of our new favorite books is called Clark the Shark that I got from our book order.
We made our own sharks with a little creativity using our sh letters.
We played musical chairs with some sharks and fish on the ground. You were out if you landed on a shark.
We finished the day by making a blue ocean with vanilla pudding and blue sprinkles and then adding some shark fruit snacks.
Teddy Bear Picnic!
One of my favorite days of the year! I can always seem to get the kids on the best behavior at the end of the year just by simply saying, "Who can show their bear how we sit at the carpet?" "What bear is raising his hand?" They love having their bear do everything they normally do. :)
We started our morning starter with handwriting practice and drawing a picture of their bear.
And some turned theirs into a duck or a rat. :)
We measured our bears using bear manipulative to see how tall their bears were and then made patterns.
We sang some bear songs and played hot potato with everyone's teddy bear. We also did some comparing. I would put bears or other stuffed animals in a pile and they had to tell me why I had chose those bears. For example: all the orange bears were in a group, or the animals with whiskers, or the animals wearing clothes, etc.
At the end of the day we had some fun with our parachute and making our bears fly.
Vacation Theme
I showed them a picture of a place I might want to go on a vacation and they told me what I would need to pack.
Sunscreen, hat, swimsuit and sunglasses for the beach.
We also did some journal writing for our morning starter and they each told me where they would like to go on vacation.
Spring City
Italy
Some others included Peppa Pig Land, Disneyland, Ice World, Vegas and Texas.
We read the book Oh, the Places You'll Go by Dr. Suess and then made our suitcases with all the things we would need for a trip. I forgot pajamas though.
We also made beach bottles with sand, seashells, glitter, dish soap and blue water. They loved these.
It has been a wonderful year! I am looking forward to our party tomorrow! And hope I won't cry too much at graduation. :)
